Happy Boxing Day! Living in another country is so interesting, I learn something new EVERY day! For example, Boxing Day. My British friend was telling me all about her Christmas traditions which led to a conversation about Boxing Day. I of course assumed that Boxing Day was a day when you would invite friends and family over to watch a boxing match...WOW...was I ever wrong!
Some historians say the holiday developed because servants were required to work on Christmas Day, but took the following day off. As servants prepared to leave to visit their families, their employers would present them with gift boxes.
As corrected by my Canadian friend, Lori:
In the province of New Brunswick (can't speak for other provinces) it's a holiday just like Christmas Day where no retailers are open. Stores do not open again until the day after Boxing Day. Traditionally, as I was growing up, it is a holiday designed to visit people outside of the immediate family. Christmas Day is spent with immediate family members and Boxing Day was designed for "clean up" and "boxing up" gifts from the tree. Also it's day for giving to others who are not part of the immediate family and back in the old days it would refer more to people who you'd like to give gifts to yet did not see on Christmas Day. That's probably a more accurate description of the day. If any stores are open in any of the other provinces they are probably stores like Best Buy who have an American origin. Canadian retailers would not be open.
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